LOCATION FLATBUSH NY
Established Series
RKS-JTI-LPR
01/2014
FLATBUSH SERIES
The Flatbush series consists of very deep, well drained soils that formed in a thin loamy mantle of human transported materials over glacial outwash deposits. They occur in anthropogenically altered landscapes in and near major urbanized areas of the Northeast. Slopes range from 0 to 35 percent. Mean annual temperature is about 13 degrees C and mean annual precipitation is about 1258 mm.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Dystric Eutrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Flatbush loam on a nearly level fill plain. (Colors are for moist soil.)
^A --- 0 to 5 cm; very dark brown (10YR 2/2) loam; moderate fine granular and moderate medium granular structure; friable; common medium roots and common fine roots; strongly acid (pH 5.4); abrupt smooth boundary. (5 to 50 cm thick.)
^BA --- 5 to 22 cm; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common coarse roots, common medium roots and moderately few fine roots; 2 percent gravel; very strongly acid (pH 5); clear wavy boundary. (11 to 17 cm thick.)
^Bwu1 --- 22 to 40 cm; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common coarse roots, common medium roots and moderately few fine roots; 1 percent gravel-sized coal fragments and 2 percent gravel; strongly acid (pH 5.2); clear smooth boundary.
^Bwu2 --- 40 to 59 cm; 45 percent yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) moist and 45 percent brown (7.5YR 4/4) loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common coarse roots, common medium roots and moderately few fine roots; 1 percent gravel-sized coal fragments and 4 percent gravel; strongly acid (pH 5.2); clear smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the ^Bw horizons is 5 to 68 cm.)
2Bwb --- 59 to 83 cm; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) fine sandy loam; moderate coarse subangular blocky structure; friable; moderately few medium roots and common coarse roots; 4 percent gravel; very strongly acid (pH 5.0); clear smooth boundary. (11 to 86 cm thick.)
2BCb1 --- 83 to 98 cm; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) fine sandy loam; massive; firm; moderately few medium roots and common coarse roots; 3 percent gravel; very strongly acid (pH 5.0); clear smooth boundary.
2BCb2 --- 98 to 107 cm; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) sandy loam; massive; friable; 2 percent gravel; very strongly acid (pH 5.0). (Combined thickness of the 2BCb horizons is 6 to 25 cm.)
2C1 --- 107 to 125 cm; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) loamy sand; single grain; friable; 5 percent gravel; very strongly acid (pH 5.0).
2C3 --- 125 to 133 cm; light gray (2.5Y 7/2) very fine sandy loam; massive; friable; strongly acid (pH 5.4).
2C4 --- 133 to 160 cm; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) fine sandy loam; massive; friable; 30 percent gravel; strongly acid (pH 5.2).
TYPE LOCATION: Kings County, New York: Prospect Park. 235 feet east of the intersection of Prospect Park SW and Reeve Place. USGS Brooklyn, NY, topographic quadrangle: Latitude 4039'13.78" N. and Longitude 7358'19.76" W.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The combined thickness of human transported fill and buried natural solum is 60 cm or more. Thickness of the human transported loamy fill material is 25 to 100 cm. Depth to bedrock is more than 150 cm. Rock fragments, primarily gravel, range from 0 to 35 percent in the A and B horizons and from 5 to 40 percent in C horizons, with a weighted average of less than 35 percent in the control section. Some C horizons, below 100 cm, range from 5 to 60 percent rock fragments. The weighted average of human artifacts in the control sections is less than 10 percent. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid to slightly alkaline throughout.
The ^A horizon has a hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 2 to 4, and chroma of 1 to 4. Textures include sandy loam, fine sandy loam, loam and silt loam. Structure is granular or subangular blocky, but may be fine platy where the surface has been compacted. Consistence is very friable or friable.
The ^Bw horizon has a hue 5YR to 2.5Y, value of 3 to 6, and chroma of 2 to 8. Textures include sandy loam, fine sandy loam, very fine sandy loam, loam, and silt loam. Structure is weak or moderate subangular blocky. Consistence is friable or very friable. Pieces of A horizon are commonly mixed in.
The ^C horizon has properties similar to the ^Bw, except the horizon is massive or massive with plate-like divisions.
The 2Ab horizon, if present, has a hue of 5YR to 2.5Y, value of 2 to 4, and chroma of 1 to 3. Texture is sandy loam, fine sandy loam, loam or silt loam. Structure is granular or subangular blocky and consistence is friable or very friable.
The 2Bwb, if present, horizon has hue of 5YR to 2.5Y, value of 3 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 6. Texture is sandy loam, fine sandy loam, loam or silt loam. Structure is commonly subangular blocky and consistence is friable or very friable. Some pedons have a thin AB or BA horizon.
The 2BC, if present, have hue of 5YR to 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 6. Textures are loamy sand, fine sandy loam, or sandy loam in the fine-earth fraction with coarser texture restricted to the 2BC horizon. They have weak subangular blocky structure or they are massive. Consistence is friable or very friable.
The 2C horizon has hue of 2.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 3 to 7, and chroma of 3 to 6. Texture is coarse sand, sand, or loamy sand in the fine-earth fraction or it is stratified sand and gravel. Some pedons contain strata of loamy fine sand, fine sandy loam, very fine sandy loam or silt loam. The material is generally massive or single grain, and the consistence is friable or very friable.
If the 2C horizon starts within 90 cm, textures of the fine earth fraction 12.5 cm above the 2C horizon must be more than 50 percent fine sand and coarser.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the
Herkimer,
Lowville,
Pittsfield,
Reger,
Spoolsville,
Urne, and
Wakeman series. All of these soils have less than 25 cm of human transported material at the surface.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Flatbush soils are nearly level to steeply sloping artificially created or modified landforms on outwash plains and water sorted moraines. Depth to sandy outwash materials is deep (100 to 150 centimeters) and outside of the particle size control section. These soils formed in human transported soil material, with a natural substratum that is either a buried pedon or shows evidence of being a truncated soil. The cap of human transported material is dominantly from locally excavated upland materials and is relatively clean of refuse with less than 10 percent human artifacts. Slopes range from 0 to 50 percent. Mean annual temperature ranges from 9 to 13 degrees C, mean annual precipitation ranges from 1000 to 1300 mm.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: Associated anthropogenic soils include
Greenbelt and
Centralpark, both of which have more than 100 cm of human transported materials at the surface
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Well drained. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high to high in the solum and high to very high in the substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most of these soils have been cleared and are used for urban or suburban development and parks. Vegetation includes London Plain, Maidenhair Tree, white and red oaks, hickory, American beech, and Sugar maple.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: These soils occur on modified landscapes in and near major urbanized areas of the Northeastern United States. MLRAs144A and 149B. The soils of this series are small extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Kings County, New York, 2014. Series proposed Kings County, New York, 1999.
REMARKS: Flatbush soils often exhibit an irregular decrease in organic carbon with depth however this is a result of anthropogenic filling (deposition) not alluvial deposition; excluding them from the concept of Fluventic Eutrudepts. Proposed revisions to soil taxonomy in ICOMANTH Circular Letter 7 developed for anthropogenic soils will help to clarify this difference.
The diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in this pedon include:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 5 cm (^A horizon)
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 5 to 83 cm (^BA, ^Bw, and 2Bw horizons)
3. Dystric Eutrudepts - base saturation (by NH4OAc) of 60 percent or more in one or more horizons at a depth between 25 and 75 cm from the mineral soil surface; does not have free carbonates within 100 cm of the mineral soil surface
National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.